This is a breakfast cake, a lunch cake, a 3 p.m. cake, and a 3 a.m. cake. But where it really excels is after dinner, toasted and smothered in melting vanilla ice cream (the flavor that pairs best with all those chai spices).
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
- 1 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¾ cup plain full-fat Greek yogurt
- 3 large eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
How to Make It
- Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 350°F. Lightly coat an 8½- by 4½-inch loaf pan with butter. Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the long sides, then lightly coat the parchment with more butter. (There’s no need to line the short sides; just make sure they’re well buttered.) Sprinkle a little sugar into the pan; shake the pan so that the sugar sticks to the sides and bottom (tap out any sugar that doesn’t stick).
- Melt the 1 stick butter in a heavy 10-inch skillet set over medium heat. Cook the butter gently, swirling the pan every once in a while, until you see that it’s getting golden brown in spots and starts to smell nutty (don’t let the butter burn!). Pour the butter into a shallow bowl and let it cool to room temperature, about 5 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, black pepper, allspice, cardamom, and cloves. In another medium bowl, whisk together the 1 cup sugar, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla extract until combined; add the browned butter and whisk to blend. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet, just until it blends together into a batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top with a spatula, and give the top of the cake a generous sprinkle of sugar (about 2 tablespoons).
- Bake until the top of the cake is cracked and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Let the cake cool in its pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the short sides and use the parchment to lift the cake out of the pan. Let it cool on the rack completely.
- Toast slices of cake and serve with ice cream, or wrap the cake tightly and store at room temperature, ready to steal slices for your lunches or breakfasts for up to a week.